Description: The 70-6 is a 5 watt ATV transmitter including exciter and power amplifier. It is a self contained unit capable of field operation requiring a nominal 12 volt source, a 70cm antenna and a composite video source.

The 70-6 ATV power amplifier has been tested and it is good - living up to its specs. I used a commercial cable TV exciter, equivalent to the exciter that is part of the Model 70-6 package, to generate an NTSC analog ATV signal. This signal was feed into the 70-6 power amplifier. The power amplifier put out 4 watts as measured by an HP 436 power meter giving me an average power reading. I did not increase the input power to push the output to it's maximum power. The transmission as observed on a TV connected to a nearby antenna was outstanding, understandably. When the transmission was viewed through an ATV repeater a few miles away, it was very good, P5 quality.

In another test of the amplifier, I put a carrier signal at 426 MHz into the amplifier at -10 dBm and got out 39.6 dBm of power. This power out is close to the upper limit for power out. Since the amplifier is said to be a 5 watt amplifier, I put in -16.5 dBm and got out 37 dBm both at 426 MHz and at 439 MHz.

This amplifier is designed to be integrated with an ATV exciter and so I tested an integrated exciter/amplifier combination. The exciter requires +5v and +12v (nominal). Both these voltages are available on the back panel. The integrated pair worked very well and is a plug and play system. The switches and lights on the front panel serve the user in easily seeing what the current status of the system is and what to change if needed.

I do not have HDTV transmission capabilities and so can not test or report on the ultra linearity of the amplifier for HDTV applications.

Don, N0YE

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